Montreal Before Spring

Telephone wires, dark as a line in a schoolboy''s notebook against the dawn; paint flakes from houses drifting down like dust; the hulking shadow of a desk that emerges, stock-still as a cow, in the moment of waking. Join poet Robert Melançon for a quiet celebration of his city, its inhabitants, and the language that gives it life.

From "Eden":

You go forth drunk on
the multitudes, drunk
on everything, while
the lampposts sprinkle
nodding streets with stars.

Robert Melançon, former poetry columnist for Le Devoir is a recipient of the Governor General''s Award, the Prix Victor-Barbeau, and the Prix Alain-Grandbois.